The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1887-10-20
PENCIL MARGINALIA..FO SUN.
DAY READING.

BY H. F. M,

BY H. F. M.
Especial Cor. STATE CHRoNICLE.1
1t was my privilege, about a week ago,
to make cursOry examination of the
''GENESIs AND Geology of Rev. DR.. N.
G. Hughes, a work which impressed me at
the time as one of great thoughtfulness
and research The bent of my previous
reading was such as to direct my attention
to his frontispiece picture of 1.-The Crea-
tion." 1t represents the world ''in the
beginning''-as the illustration would
lmply-as being in a condition of compile
ted growth, both as to vegetation and an
imal life. How far this picture COM
ports with his theory of the va
rious eras of geological development, as
thereafter unfolded, is not for me to
say without a more thorough knowl-
edge of his book; but what l want to say
at present is, that his FRONTIsPIECE entirely
corresponds with Chateaubriand's view of
''the Creation" 1t is the view of the lat
ter that 1.-The Author of Nature planted
at once aged forests and their youthful
progeny; that animals arose at the same
time, some full Of years, others buoyant
with the vigor and adorned with the grace
of youth. The oaks, while they pierced
with their roots the fruitful earth, bore at
OAASO eLC OlN dColo vi IOOhS anu tut yOullS
progeny of doves" " He suggests tha, chad
not the world arisen at once, young and
old, the grand, the serious the impressive
would have disappeared from Nature as
''all those sentiments depend for their
very essence an ANCIENT things" Other
wise, he says, ''the inspired thoughts, the
venerated sounds, the magic voices, the
sacred horror of the forests would have
vanished" | cannot be sure of this, even
from a sentimental standpoint. Quite
probably such images minister greatly to
the imaginations of US who style ourselves
heirs of all the ages" but the fancy of
the jUvENTUS MUNDI might have been
more readily quickened by those sprghtly
thoughts which connect themselves with
termination and growth. Not only, how
ever, does NJ. Chateaubriand apply his elo-
quent conception to the world of plants
and brutes, but he believes that ''MAN, the
Sovereign of Nature, WAS BORN AT THIRTY
YEARS OF AGE, in order that his powers
should correspond with the full-grown
magnifcence of his new empire" This
latter thous hit is, certainly not inconsonant
with Milton's. SOME difference of opinion,
however, exists as to the birth-state of
Adams physical development. The great
oratorical genius, William Eiskell, of
Tennessee, once asked a gifted friend of
HIS duO ulHC3 Ou ScCluS nuCu tduulcu
picture of a beardless Adam; ''Say, H.,
where in the deuce did Adam get his ra-
zor?" This he meant derisively; but Mi
chael Angeles great fresco of ''our dis
tant but undaunted relation" as Mark
Twain styles him, in the Sistine Chapel
represents him not only as devoid of this
hirsute appendage, buff the copies of
that painting may be credited-as suffer
ing, at the time of his creation, from an
inhammatory distension of the veins them
selves, as the vital air first passed through:
can hardly commend, although it was
quite natural, the angry public and per-
sonal response of Emma Abbott to the
| the Nashville preacher who, from the pull
pit, denounced her profession to her face.
She was not without an illustrious Though
not always worthy example, however.
Aaron Burr, having acquired in old age
the habit of coming late to church, and
conspicuous by his ''bad eminence," was
| the means of disturbing every Sunday the
| congregation of Rev. DR.. B., who, having
resolved to call him to order, said, loudly
and impressively, on the occasion of the
next tardy entry, ''You gray-headed old
profaner of the services of God, I'll, ap-
| pear against you on the day Of Judgment!
''Dr. B., said the stern old man, drawing
himself up to his full height, and fixing
on the minister that steadfast eye which
had quailed no more amidst the battles
| lightning of Quebec than in front of Ham
ilton's pistol, sin very long practice at
the bar, have found that the meanest
class of criminals are those who turn
States evidence''
| While not having time to enter now up
on the seemingly superfuOus task of de-
Tending the profession OF Shakespeare
(whose HAMLET have heard quoted from
the pulpit by $50 divine man" as the late
Bishop Atkinson), cannot forbear APRo-
POS the Emma Abbott episode, to extract
the following from the Shepherd of the
NoCrEs. He is speaking of Mrs. SlDDoNs
GAS Leddy Macbeth! Her gran,' high,
Fixed cen, no like the cen O. the dead, yet
hardly mair like them O. the leevin; dim
and yet licht wi an obscure lustre
through which the tormented soul looked
in the chains O. sleep and dreams wi a
the distraction O. remOrse and despair
EDWARDS she used to come
no Sarah Siddons-hut just Leddy Mac
beth herself-though that melancholy
masquerade O. passion the spectator aye
had confused glimmerin apprehension Of
the great actresa-glidin' VII the ghost
like motion O. night wandering unrest, un
conscious O. surrounding obieots,-for oh
how could the glazed yet gleamin' cen SET
aught in this material worlds-yet, by
some mysterious power O. instict never
touched ane O. the impediments that tn,
furniture O. the auld castle micht be op
posed to her haunted footsteps-on sh,
came, wiring, wringing her hauns, as i
washin' them in the oleansip' dews frat
the hlouts of blood. 1T WAS !
pREADFV' HOMILYi AND VIVA THAT SAW
WOULD EVER ASK WHETHER TRAGEDY OR TIL
STAGE WAS MORAL, PURGING THE SOUL AS SH
DID WI PITY AND WI TERRoR!''
"What though no grants of royal donors
With pompous titles grace our blood;
Well shine in more substantial hOnOurs
AND TO BE NOBLE WE'LL Re GOOD.'
But for the fact that Prof G. Alphons
Smiths inquiry as to the authorship of tn
above had been, in the CHRONICLE of Oc
tober 18th, answered by my scholarly pro
fessional friend, John w. Hays, in sue
manner as to attribute it infallibly to tn
PERCY RELIQUEs, should certainly hav
} connected it, by lineal or collateral kin
ship, with this verse from Tennyson'
tIADY CLARA WERE DE WERE"
"Howe'er it be, it seems to me,
IT'S ONLY NOZZLE TO BE GOOD
And simple faith than Norman bloodp'